A team of four persons in hierarchical order man each polling station: Presiding Officer, Assistant Presiding Officer, Polling Officer and Assistant Polling Officer.

Polls open at 8.00 am and close at 5.00pm, however, if there are voters in the queue at 5.00pm, they will be allowed to cast their ballot.

The procedure for voting is based on the provisions as of the Elections Act. The voting process occurs in this order:

Voter enters polling station

Voter shows his/her voting card to the polling assistant.

Polling assistant directs voter to the right queue.

Voter reports to the Assistant Presiding Officer (APO), who checks the voter’s card against the Register of Voters.

APO checks that the voting card is genuine and the identity of the voter correlates that in card..

Once satisfied, the APO draws a line through the serial number on the Alphabetical register of voters (N.B. If the voter is under any query as to his/her identity, the voter is referred to the Presiding Officer)

Voter then reports to the Polling Officer

The Polling Officer dips the voter’s left forefinger into indelible ink to ensure that they have been identified as eligible to vote.

Voter proceeds to the Presiding Officer, who checks the voter’s finger and then hands him/her a marble/token.

The Presiding Officer listens to the sound of the token/marble hitting the drum.

The voter then leaves the voting compartment.

Upcoming events:

no event

Development Partners

In accordance with Section 44 of the 1997 constitution of the Gambia, the IEC’s activities are primarily funded by Government of the Republic of the Gambia. Over the years, the IEC has successfully sought and acquired funding for its activities.
In 2006, a joint Donor Basket Fund was instituted under the stewardship of the UNDP. Through this noble venture, development partners such as UNDP, DFID, and the European Union facilitated the acquisition of funds in support of Electoral Activities in the Gambia.
The UNDP in 2011 funded the IEC and NCCE on both Civic and Voter Education for the Presidential in 2011 and National Assembly Elections of 2012.
An Elections Project is currently underway fully sponsored by the UNDP. The beneficiaries in this project include: IEC, NCCE, The Inter Party, Women’s Bureau, GPU and the CSO Coalition on Elections.
The Commission is indeed grateful to the UNDP.

Legislation

The IEC was established in accordance with Section 42 of the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia. It operates within the confines of the Electoral Laws in the Constitution (as amended), Elections Act ( as amended) and the Local Government Act 2002 (as amended). Please see below for links to relevant legislation:

Constitution of The Republic of The Gambia, Elections Act and Local Government Act and the Elections Amendment Act 2015.